The present invention relates to a new and improved fuze design that uses considerably less power than fuze designs disclosed in prior art. For instance, a low power CMOS timer used in AAI Corporation's TAFF device dissipates about 400 uA at 54 kHz and is projected to draw about 63 uA if operated at 8 kHz. Furthermore, when microcontrollers are included in the countdown circuit design, even more power is consumed. As a result, either batteries must be included in the design or else a significant pre-charge must be placed on a relatively large capacitor.
The problem with using batteries is that they must meet a 20 year life requirement. Therefore, they are kept in an inert state until activated. Consequently, a delay from 50 to 500 msec or more is encountered after firing of a projectile from a weapon before the battery comes up to a useable level. Electrical energy has to be temporarily supplied by some other means if the fuze electronics has to operate before that time. This results in a higher cost per round and raises reliability and safety concerns. At the present time, no electronic fuze presently exists that can operate from a piezoid alone for count down times of several seconds or more.